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What I Drank and Ate and Drank in Dublin

by Michael Y. Park

on 04/16/12 at 05:00 PM

So a few weeks ago, as I mentioned before, I managed to sneak in a trip to Paris and decided to hit up Dublin, which I'd neved been to, on the way back. Accompanying me was my old pal Matt, who grew up in Colorado but who has Irish citizenship. As fortune had it, we happened to go the weekend of the Six Nations rugby match between Ireland and Scotland, which explained the surfeit of kilts and Scottish burrs.

The dish directly above is the Mother Reilly's curry chicken with rice and chips. Matt got the curry chicken. I got the sausages. We both decided I won that lunch order.

Just before that, we'd gone to the Bleeding Horse, one of the numerous stops on the Ulysses itinerary. The Bleeding Horse was a light-filled, airy maze of Guinnesses, hidden tables, and helpful bartenders. I could almost be endlessly diverted there, my favorite spot being the tucked-away half-table that sat in a balcony overlooking one of the entrances, ideal for people-watching. If I ever have my own bar, I will make the people-watching balcony my first priority.

We stopped into Kehoe's, but the crowd was massive and sweaty, so we spilled out onto the street and finished up our stouts atop a barrel while watching a middle-aged man repeatedly fall over into a ropeline.

Not too far away, the Stag's Head had meat pasties, Guinness, and Powers tapped from the keg. The Powers sold me. (Thanks, LaurenFoodE!)

Finally, we splurged a bit and went to Fallon & Byrne, which features a grocery on the ground floor, a wine bar below, and a white-cloth restaurant above. Matt and I ate at the bar: He got the lemon sole, and I had a pork chop over a sort of carrot-parsnip emulsion, if I remember correctly. The pork was perfectly cooked, thick and juicy, and the carrot-parsnip was creamy and not too sweet. I gave Matt the thumbs-up sign repeatedly, because neither or he or I wanted to speak and risk a moment without more of their food in our mouths. (Matt finished up with some dessert contraption called a Knickerbocker Glory, which he liked but may have put him to sleep.) So yeah, next time I'm in Dublin, I'm planning on going back.